It’s been a peculiar World Cup. The group stage, a stupendous goal fest, had people proclaiming this tournament the greatest in history almost as soon as began. Then that period gave way to a series of fraught, low-scoring knockout matches. They’ve been compelling, by and large, but maybe the tournament could do with an injection of that early excitement to remind everybody that it’s still happening.

Brazil-Germany, on Brazilian turf, should deliver. This will be a game of incredible intensity between two teams for whom success on the soccer pitch is a matter of national pride.

But what kind of game it will be will come down to how Brazil decides to play in the absence of its biggest star. Without Neymar – the tousle-haired beach infant who was supposed to win glory for Brazil before he fractured a vertebrae against Colombia – his teammates could go down one of two paths. They could:

a) See the absence of their star as an opportunity to come together and start playing the stylish soccer that people expect from the host nation, or

b) Dial up the aggression that brought them victory over Colombia in that unbelievably intense quarter-final.

The smart money’s on option B. Despite some injury problems, the Germans have glided through the tournament with ominous serenity; it would be a brave call from Luis Felipe Scolari to choose today to break from the formula – defensive solidity combined with direct offensive play from a few speedy attackers – that’s brought Brazil this far.

In that case, we could get another battle like the one between Brazil and Colombia. That game was exhilarating to watch, in a Rollerball kind of way, but it wasn’t pretty. The ball was just a prop. It bounced around and gave everybody an excuse to knee each other in the spine.

Bernard is the man picked by Luiz Felipe Scolari to step into Neymar’s shoes. That’s a good sign for anybody hoping to see Brazil try to take on this technical Germany team at their own game. Bernard’s skillful, fast – and tiny. If Brazil were simply trying to out muscle Germany, Willian or Ramires would have been a safer replacement. This is a huge opportunity for the 21-year-old, a chance to show that Neymar isn’t Brazil’s only game changer. Thiago Silva, suspended from this match, is replaced by Bayern Munich’s Dante.

No real surprises in the Germany team. Veteran striker Miroslav Klose will get another chance to move ahead Ronaldo at the top of the all-time scorers list in the World Cup. Phillip Lahm starts at right-back, Benedikt Howedes at left-back.

From FIFA.com…. This is Germany’s first showdown against South American opposition in a World Cup semi-final. Meanwhile, Brazil have already faced European opponents five times in this round; they lost only once, to Italy in 1938, before reaching the Final on every successive occasion by overcoming France in 1958, Sweden in 1994, the Netherlands in 1998 and Turkey in 2002.

Oddly, although Brazil has won more World Cup trophies than anybody, and Germany has played more World Cup games than anybody, they’ve only faced each other once in this competition entering today’s match. That was 12 years ago, when goals from the original Ronaldo secured Brazil’s fifth cup. How Scolari must wish he had a center-forward like him to call on, instead of Fred, a near-stationary lump with a bad mustache. .

German anthem: sedate, regal, restrained. Like a duke, but a duke doesn’t like to brag too much. But enough of the Germans (who all look oddly sleepy). Let’s hear from the Brazilians. They’re all holding shirts with Neymar on them in honor of the great man tragically missing in action (he hurt his back). Some especially passionate performances from the little mascots there. Good work kids.

Ozil, a frail-looking man at the best of times, finds the pressure too much and loses his footing as Germany mounts its first attack. An enormous roar goes up as Brazil recovers the ball, but they don’t do much with it.

Luiz picks out the run of Hulk down the left, and Manuel Neuer has to jump forward off his line to seize the striker’s cutback. Then Germany breaks, but Ozil doesn’t spot Muller’s run down the left, and the move breaks down.

It is an absolutely beautiful evening here in Belo Horizonte. Cool and breezy like a spring night in New York. After so many sweltering exhausting 1 pm games in the tropics during this cup, the climate seems finally appropriate for a semi final showdown between two great soccer powers.

The broadcasters decide to show a nice helicopter shot of the picturesque riverside stadium in Belo Horizonte. Either the producers owe somebody at the tourist board a favor or they think the game’s started quietly. Hummels heads clear a long ball from Gustavo.

A loose ball breaks to Khedira, whose shot hits Toni Kroos. Brazil wins the ball back and Fred tries to guilefully poke a pass through to Oscar on the edge of the box. Fred should leave guile to the experts.

Kroos’s ball falls straight to Muller at the far post, six meters out, and all he has to do for his fifth goal of the World Cup is bounce a controlled shot past the helpless Julio Cesar. How was he free? Whose fault was that? And how on earth does Brazil respond?

HULK SMASH! Brazil’s least nuanced striker decides to play an ambitious cross-field pass, left to right across 10 or so other players, despite the fact that there’s no Brazil player within a 15 yard blast radius of where the ball makes landfall.

Fantastic challenge from Phillip Lahm after some threatening interplay from Brazil, Fernandinho to Oscar, who swept the ball on to Marcelo, breaking lightning-fast into the box from the left. Lahm’s tackle is inch-perfect. Marcelo wants a penalty, of course.

Germany looks so dangerous when Brazil gives the ball away. Khedira moves the ball on to Kroos, whose early pass slices Brazil open down the center as Germany break forward at pace. Klose jumps over the ball, leaving it for Ozil, but Dante is on his toes and reaches the loose ball first.

This game is very anti-Scolari so far. Brazil are not defending and are breaking with real speed and energy. Maybe the moment has got the better of the hosts, but I can’t imagine Big Phil is very happy right now – and not just with the scoreline.

More direct, incisive play from Germany through the center ends up with the ball at Klose’s feet, just inside the penalty box. He turns and gets a shot away, but it’s a scuffed, slow effort which rolls straight to Julio Cesar.

Wow, this could end up anything. It’s 4-0 after 25 minutes and could be 7 or 8 the way this is going. It’s unbelievably bad defending. In a World Cup semifinal it’s embarrassing – in under 8′s soccer it would be embarrassing.

OK let’s recap Brazil’s humiliation. The second goal, Kroos poked the ball through to Muller, whose shot was blocked. Klose slammed the ball home at the second attempt. Three and four were both Kroos – a slammed finish at the far post, then the most catastrophic of all, an abject error from Dante, who gave the ball to Ozil. Ozil found Kroos, Kroos scored again. So so easy. An unthinkable collapse from the hosts.

That last goal, Ozil was maybe fractionally offside. Perhaps Scolari will blame the referees. Anyway, who cares, because FIVE-NIL. Ozil kept cool, which isn’t a surprise given that all pressure has been lifted from Germany’s shoulders, and found Khedira, who slotted the ball past Cesar.

OK, Brazil hasn’t conceded in what, five minutes? This is progress. This is the beginning of the greatest comeback in sporting history. Just wait. At half-time Scolari is taking off Fred and bringing on Christ the Redeemer as a substitute.

Klose is a slow, crafty finisher, a veteran who gets goals through being in the right place at the right time. but Brazil’s terror is making him look like Messi. He dances down the center like an ageing ballroom dancer. The thrill of it so overcomes him he doesn’t notice Muller in a perfect position to his right and loses the ball. Muller looks aggrieved, but only slightly.

Muller and Ozil exchange passes and Gustavo fouls Muller desperately to the right of the D. Germany has way, way too much for Brazil. Jeez, these Germans. They were so boring all tournament. Boring, efficient Germans. Now this.

Brazil work up the courage and find the coordination to advance into Germany’s half. Lahm tackles Marcelo contemptuously. What else could the Brazilians do, now that soccer is out of the question? Maybe they could take up mime. Because now there are 11 men on the pitch whose faces are each in their own way a perfect representation of horror.

Germany break at speed down the left as most of the Brazilians get caught up field. Muller whips the ball infield to Klose, but he’s dispossessed smartly by Dante, who is at the end of the day a world-class defender. A bit late to start playing like one now.

The home fans, who’ve booed most other teams in the tournament when they’ve been deemed too boring, now have to boo their own team off the pitch. What a humiliation for Brazil. They haven’t lost at home in competition since 1975.

Obviously it’s all about Brazil. About the absence of Neymar, of Thiago Silva, about the weight of expectations, the startling lack of quality from the greatest footballing nation. But Germany has been astonishing. Khedira has won every tackle. Muller, Kroos and Ozil have played with ruthless, clinical directness. An absolute demolition from Germany, a more or less perfect performance. If they don’t win this tournament they will have failed badly.

Gustavo and Paulinho exchange passes in midfield, looking composed. Then Ramires rolls the ball slowly away from danger. Eventually a cross sails way over the Germany box, and the Germans have a brief think about mounting an attack. They decide not to this time, thanks.

Gustavo and Paulinho exchange passes in midfield, looking composed. Then Ramires rolls the ball slowly away from danger. Eventually a cross sails way over the Germany box, and the Germans have a brief think about mounting an attack. They decide not to this time, thanks.

Well, at least this looks like a competitive sports event now. An incisive move from Brazil and ball comes to Oscar, around the penalty spot. Any confident finish and Brazil are just four goals down, but he side-foots the ball too close to Neuer.

Brazil politely ask whether they can have their dignity back. Manuel Neuer says you’ll have to earn it. The ball broke to Paulinho, to the left of goal, just the goalie to beat, but his first shot is too easy Neuer, and the second forces him into a fine reaction save.

A colleague of ours who’s in Sao Paulo’s Vila Madalena district reports: “A few people are in a really bad mood, but the people who are still here are mostly enjoying the party. At least on the corner where I am.” He doesn’t say whether those happy folks have switched the TV off.

Maicon dives pathetically in the penalty box. The Germans politely ask the referee if perhaps he can be booked for breaking the rules, because rules are rules and the Germans have no mercy. The referee didn’t spot the dive, or didn’t feel he needed to dwell on it, so Brazil has a corner which breaks wide to Bernard. He floats a pretty but ineffective pass into the arms of Neuer.

There are still occasional moments of threat from Germany. Muller breaks down the left and sends a dangerous low cross towards Schurrle and Ozil in the center. A defender just about gets enough on the ball to direct it to Julio Cesar.

Germany were ruthless in the first half, but today, Brazil are a very, very poor side. You can say their two best players were out, but the ones who have been out there today have been embarrassing. They are international footballers, but look like the club reserves that many of them have been this year. Fred, Paulinho, Marcelo and Maicon have been the worst performers, but all of them have been awful. Julio Cesar probably couldn’t have done much with the goals, but he’s the only one that hasn’t been shocking.

The sequence of the match basically goes: 45 seconds of directionless Brazil possession, then a speculative attempt at goal. Then Germany gets the ball and they scythe Brazil open in about three passes. Cesar has to be brave and quick again as another low pass comes in from Ozil on the left.

The face of Fred appears on the big screen (he was replaced minutes ago by Willian). He gets booed. He was booed whenever the ball came to him. Now if there’s any justice the ball won’t ever come to him again, at least not in a Brazil shirt, and he’s still getting booed. Poor guy.

This would be the biggest win in a World Cup semifinal ever – not a huge surprise, but you have to wonder if any team has ever collapsed like this in such a big event. They’re at home too, it’s just hard to get your head around.

Ozil gets the ball on the right. A lightning piece of footwork and Schurrle has the ball. Then Ozil has the ball again. And somehow the precision and speed of that exchange leaves Brazil hopelessly exposed, as Germany rush forward yet again. It takes a desperate challenge from Luiz to break up another flowing attack.

Julian Draxler comes on for Khedira. Draxler is known to Arsenal fans because approximately one million news stories were written earlier this year about a supposedly imminent transfer to Arsenal which never happened. Anyway. Luiz tries to kick the ball, fails, and kicks Muller. Muller is polite about it.

Julio Cesar is grimacing like a man with a hernia. It was a great goal from Schurrle – an athletic leap and single perfect touch to bring the ball under control at a tight angle on the left, then a ridiculously fierce strike that rebounds in off the crossbar.

The Brazilian fans are cheering every pass. Every German pass, obviously. The odds on 6-0 were 700 to one on the betting website I just checked. The odds on 7-0? Not available. You wouldn’t have been able to find somebody to take your money.

What will Neymar and Thiago Silva say? There isn’t much they can say, but I’m sure people will want to hear from them. As for the other Brazilian players and the Coach Scolari, I bet most Brazilians will never want to hear from them again.

Ramires has fought tenaciously since he came on. Probably he should have started. He shoots at Neuer from 20-odd yards and Neuer calmly tumbles to his left to block it. Deutschland Uber Alles rings out in Belo Horizonte.

That most recent Germany goal, Schurrle’s second, gets better every time you see it. The kind of goal that’s easy when you’re six-nil up in a semi-final, maybe, but extraordinary in any other circumstances.

Despite Oscar’s consolation goal, let’s be brutally honest: this Brazil team was ripe for plucking. It has looked short of quality throughout the tournament. It has covered up its shortcomings with passion and, against Colombia, brutality. Today, it has been found out.

What a ridiculous match. What a ridiculous scoreline. Germany beats Brazil 7-1. That’s one of the all-time great thrashings. And against Brazil, of all teams! Playing in Brazil! Does that count for nothing?

Everybody in the stadium seems to be crying. It will take the Brazilian team years and years to recover their self-belief after such a humiliation. They were dreadful. Uncoordinated in defense, devoid of invention, lacking in killer instinct. In 1950 defeat to Uruguay ruined the lives, more or less, of one generation of Brazilian superstars. What will become of this one?

But what about Germany? What a team. Maybe they were waiting for the moment to show the world just how good they are, or maybe they were simply the first team to realize just how vulnerable the Brazilians were. No matter. They were magnificent, right from the start. Ruthless, precise, aggressive. Now they need to do it once more, against Argentina or the Netherlands. After a performance like that, the Germans won’t care which.

Comments (5 of 90)

Why are people falling for this Panzer-Image so easily ?!! Brazil was weak, but a 7:1..pleeease.. It was a fixed game, even San Marino did better ! Ever wondered why Angela Merkel seeks FIFA Boss Joseph Blatter for regular smalltalks while sitting nix to him on the tribune ? Or why she's the only politician taking selfies with players. This is NOT politically neutral ! Where do you think are this tournament's big Investors from, who makes the biggest profits ? We all know Merkel favours banks a lot. Germany's. economy is growing stronger, while it's average citizens, especially the socially disadvantaged, are left to decay, that's it.
Germany has to win this world cup, at all costs - that's Merkel's/Blatter's masterplan . And there is evidence: Blatter secretly visited the match between Italy and Uruguay, but was caught on Camera. He wanted to be sure that his referee, ironically known as "Dracula", and Suarez, would throw the Italians aka "Deutschland"-Killer out of the tournament.
Nevertheless, Respect to the German team, they're awesome players....and hopefully do not know, what's going on behind the FIFA curtain..

10:17 am July 10, 2014

ashamed wrote:

feel ashamed the whole BRAZILIAN team was a setup the team was dependent on ONLY neymar.

8:59 am July 10, 2014

Gabi Sti wrote:

Watching the game: at 5:0 elation was replaced by a feeling of commiseration with the Brasilians. They had given all hope. There was no fight left in them, if there ever had been one.

8:44 am July 10, 2014

Priyanka Nair wrote:

Such a mind blowing performance by Germany - though I still remain a loyal Brazil fan I have developed more respect for Germany now. My friends in Brazil have been sharing awesome pictures of the live match with me on Photo4Tune - an awesome free chat app which has all the great qualities of whatsapp + snapchat + facebook without any of their annoying features. World cup on Photo4Tune - that's spells awesome for me You can download it from google play store for free.

7:53 am July 10, 2014

John wrote:

Nice going Germany South Americans have over blown egos, Brazil deserved a thrashing! As for the references to "Nazis" the left wing trolls cannot contain their anger at the prospect of a European World Cup wwhich it will be as the only competition now is a third rate team winning by way of shootout!!!

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